Canada’s housing agency has concluded that speed bumps not only fuel anger among drivers – who have to slow down to approach a bump, then speed up, then slow down for the next one – but also increase fuel consumption and cause more greenhouse-gas emissions than if they were traveling at a constant speed.

A sweeping global survey conducted for BBC World Service has found people are far more willing to make financial and lifestyle sacrifices to arrest climate change than most leaders acknowledge. But whatever else politicians think of the findings, they will certainly pounce on respondents’ willingness to pay higher taxes.

The British government says new legislation will save four million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2020 and help spread responsibility for collaring climate change right across the economy. A key thrust, however, will be to expand carbon trading, which means paying others to clean up our mess.

A soon-to-be-released UN report says runaway economic growth has pushed greenhouse-gas emissions to dangerous levels much faster than previously estimated, and instead of reaching the threshold within a decade, new research indicates it was actually crossed two years ago. The findings will highlight the perils of giving economic growth priority over efforts to curtail global warming.

Why would the industry leader in fuel-efficient cars take such a reckless path amid growing awareness of global warming? Because there’s a lot more money to be made if Toyota can slow innovation in Detroit and sustain gas-guzzling.

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE